January Grooming : Five Products to Beat the Cold

So it's back to the grind - and back to the cold. The holidays are over and so is your sugar rush.

There's slush on the sidewalks and your lips are chapped and your skin is scratchy. It's too hot in the office; it's too cold on the street. It's the start of a new year and your list of resolutions is long enough to have its own reality show.

First things first: focus on the face. Even while wearing this year's ubiquitous trapper hat, you can still give good face.

Start by drinking lemon water, three liters a day. That's right: three liters of lemon water daily - because lemon detoxifies your liver and water hydrates your skin.

And use good product. Here's a list of five of our current favorite emollients designed to keep your skin as radiant and crystal clear as freshly-fallen snow.

One minor irritant in our holidays was running out of our favorite CellCeuticals® product - in the middle of the blizzard. Trust, we used a cotton swab to wipe out every last drop. You’ve never seen such a clean container: we almost served olives in it.

Fortunately, CellCeuticals has another product that is perfect for treating winter skin. Introduced in January 2009, CellCeuticals® CerActive Moisture + Barrier Repair Skin Treatment is a deep penetrating moisture treatment that replenishes essential barrier lipids to help defend against cold and wind (while you’re skiing or snowboarding - or out slogging for groceries...).

Founded in 2007 by plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Garth Fisher, CellCeuticals® Skin Care, Inc. has quickly become an industry leader in the development of biomedical technology products that target skin aging. As one devotée of CellCeuticals® CerActive Moisture + Barrier Repair Skin Treatment put it, "Whenever I wear this outside, I can deal with Mother Nature’s hissy fits."

We’re feeling her, too; in fact, we keep this one in the manbag. Best of all, this one comes in a generous two-ounce tube, so you don’t have to scrape out a pot.

Murad: Energizing Pomegranate Moisturizer SPF 15

Remember studying Ponce de Leon, the 16th-century Spanish explorer who went in search of the Fountain of Youth? He should’ve stayed in bed, eating pomegranates.

Here, in the 21st century, everyone knows the power of the pomegranate. Grocery shelves and drugstore shelves are bursting with products featuring the elixir from the antioxidant-rich, red fruit. The pomegranate’s strength comes from polyphenol, which strengthens your skin cells’ membranes while also neutralizing the free radicals that age your skin faster than a tanning booth.

Murad’s line of pomegranate-infused products are nearly as potent as squashing the fruit on your face - and a lot less messy. The lightweight, oil-free Murad Energizing Pomegranate Moisturizer SPF 15 not only protects against free radicals, but also wards off the sun’s evils - because, yes, even though it seems three blizzards away, you will go on vacation again, to a sunny beach with tropical drinks, wearing hardly any clothes, the salt air... Never mind.

Furthermore, this all-day hydrator also features artemia, which stimulates cell function - and of course, pomegranate extract, which is like kryptonite to those free radicals.

The truth is, both Allure and Real Simple love this product, too, for its ability to boost your skin’s antioxidants while giving your skin a radiant glow. Old Ponce de Leon would’ve loved it, too.

Kinerase: Hydrating Anti-Oxidant Mist

Okay, so you’ve fought the arctic wind and jumped through slush puddles and, finally, landed at the office - where the heat is so high and the air so dry, you feel like you’re in a sauna. (Yes, we know, not so bad - but not with your office mates...) You’ve got sweat blistering your forehead and you’re itchy all over and you’re ditching the cashmere cardigan. What you need now is Kinerase’s Hydrating Anti-Oxidant Mist. More than a toner, this is a soothing humectant (which, as you know, reduces the loss of moisture) - and you can either spritz directly onto your face or else head to the office restroom and swab this on your face with cotton balls.

Kinerase’s Hydrating Anti-Oxidant Mist is fortified with a salad bar of ingredients including grape seed extract which protects against DNA damage, aloe vera gel for anti-inflammation, white tea extract for its potent antioxidants, betaglucan to help promote skin regeneration - as well as hyaluronic acid, which creates a moisture magnet on the skin’s surface.

Perhaps most important of all, Kinerase’s Hydrating Anti-Oxidant Mist also contains the company’s eponymous signature ingredient, Kinetin, which is a plant-based antioxidant. Scientists discovered the anti-aging properties of Kinetin when they realized that Kinetin prevented plant leaves from drying out and withering (and who amongst us wishes to wither?).

Use Kinerase’s Hydrating Anti-Oxidant Mist under your moisturizer - and then spray throughout the day to keep your skin hydrated. Don’t be surprised if your co-workers ask for a spritz, too - and by April, your entire office might be looking younger than spring buds.

Nu Skin ageLOC™ Future Serum

In less than twenty years, more than one billion people on the planet will be over the age of sixty. Think about it: do we want to look as old as the planet? Nu Skin thinks not - and since 1984, this anti-aging company has been working with leading scientists to interpret the human genome and to identify key genes - such as Youth Gene Clusters.

If it all sounds too close to cryopreservation, just remember that back in 1984 Nu Skin introduced one of the beauty industry’s first line of products featuring the natural humectant, hyaluronic acid, which keeps your skin plump and hydrated. Now, with the recent launch of ageLOC™, Nu Skin has introduced an advanced anti-aging product that stimulates collagen production by 150%.

Utilizing the benefits of numerous anti-aging products, Nu Skin’s ageLOC™ Future Serum transforms your skin by reducing fine lines, pore size, and discoloration, while also increasing radiance with skin brightening technology, and hydration by stimulating the production of hyaluronic acid.

Furthermore, this serum comes in one seriously chic container - beautifully weighted and sleek - and even more fortunately, the serum within goes on your skin like a perfect match. Who doesn’t love serums - and this one is very lightly-fragranced and, apparently, quite effective. (We got carded the other night - just kidding, but it could happen to you...)

There’s something very futuristic about this line of products - and with regular application, you might start to feel a little like Cher: still as old as the hills but looking eternally young.

Mustela Baby Products : Hydra-Stick with Cold Cream Nutri-Protective

One of the few things we enjoy about babies (okay, so sue us - W.C. Fields didn’t like kids either...) is their skin. Whenever we see one in the elevator, whenever that baby is making eyes at us (and why do they always know which person to flirt with?), we’re staring at that skin. Have you ever seen such beautiful skin? You don’t even want to look in a mirror after seeing baby skin.

That is, unless you’re using a baby product too. We know; we were a little skeptical at first. But think about it: you want baby-smooth skin, you’re going to have to use what babies use. And this Mustela bebe Hydra-Stick with Cold Cream Nutri-Protective is as addictive as crack. It comes in this pocket-size dispenser, like a roll-on deodorant - but instead of your pits, you’re rolling it over your cheeks and forehead and chin. Mustela is the number one baby care brand in Europe, which tells you something. And since mothers and nannies use it on their babies, why shouldn’t we get the benefits too?

Loaded with shea butter in a plant oil base, Mustela bebe Hydra-Stick with Cold Cream Nutri-Protective is, equally important, free of parabens and alcohol (not good in arctic weather...), as well as hypoallergenic, so you won’t be breaking out, either. Instead, Mustela bebe Hydra-Stick with Cold Cream Nutri-Protective leaves your skin as smooth as a baby’s...

As rich as the cold creams you might remember from your grandmother’s dressing table, Mustela bebe Hydra-Stick with Cold Cream Nutri-Protective also has one of the most intoxicating smells - kind of like a freshly-cleaned...baby. Well, all right, so maybe they aren’t so bad, after all. Just keep looking at that skin.

A long-term New Yorker and a member of New York Travel Writers Association, Mark Thompson has also lived in San Francisco, Boston, Provincetown, D.C., Miami Beach and the south of France. The author of the novels WOLFCHILD and MY HAWAIIAN PENTHOUSE, he has a PhD in American Studies and is the recipient of fellowships at MacDowell, Yaddo, and Blue Mountain Center. His work has appeared in numerous publications.

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